Market Pulse

What you need to know: Always keep buy and sell offers in the grand exchange.

The successful Runescape merchant's most prolific enemy is the uncertainty of future price movements. While that may sound rather redundant, the entire point of merchanting is of course to make money. But if you're not sure which direction the price is heading, it can be difficult to do more than guess where prices are headed towards that goal. There is however ways that can help prevent you getting caught with your metaphorical pants down, preventing major market losses.

One of the easiest ways to do this, depending on a few factors, is to keep indicator offers in the grand exchange. This means that whether you're buying or selling (although this generally does not apply to high-priced goods), you always have a buy and/or sell offer at unlikely strike prices in the opposite direction you're expecting the price to go - or better yet both for extra protection. Economics nerds will recognize this as a hedge. Consider the following hypothetical:

You purchased a large quantity of Yew Logs at 100gp each, you would maintain both buy and sell offers in the grand exchange at all times. Buy offers below the price you paid, and sell offers higher than the average price you paid. This could be a buy offer at 90gp and a sell offer at 120gp. If the sell offer goes through, you may consider liquidating. If the buy offer goes through, you know the price is falling and you can either double down or liquidate.

Through this example, constantly having offers in the grand exchange shows you what exactly the market is doing and provides invaluable insight that most other merchants do not have. By constantly having your finger on the pulse of the market, you're able to make more informed buy and sell decisions.